A list of must have travel gadgets for the technologically inclined road warrior, as compiled by Time.com's Philip Elmer-Dewitt.
Airport Express
If you spend a lot of time in hotel rooms tethered to a 3" blue Ethernet leash or racking up $9.95-a-day wireless charges, this little white box could be the handiest 7.58 ounces in your computer bag. Originally marketed as a device for extending the range of an existing Wi-Fi network or for beaming music from a computer to a home stereo system, Apple's Airport Express also functions as a wireless base station in its own right. Just plug that Ethernet cable into the box and the box into an unoccupied outlet. When you fire up your computer, the transmitter shows up, ready to be configured into your own private Wi-Fi domain. Share it with whoever is in the room with you or, if you don't enter a password, your neighbors down the hall. List price: $299
Canon Powershot SD1100 IS Digital Elph
Picking a camera to take on the road isn't easy: Kodak, Konica, Nikon and the rest compete furiously with multiple product lines and trot out new features every few months. But for travel snapshots, we're partial to the Canon series of point-and-shoots — particularly the Powershot SD1100IS, an 8-megapixel ultra-light with image stabilization, face recognition and a vestigial viewfinder for quick snaps. The camera is smaller than a pack of cards and shuts down tighter than the Batmobile — perfect for slipping unobtrusively into a jeans pocket. Yet it's capable of taking sharp, high-pixel density photos even from a bouncy rickshaw. More serious photographers may favor Panasonic's $300 Lumix for its manual controls and wide angle Leica lens (for a fraction of Leica's price). But the Lumix's lens protrudes from its body and is exposed to the elements; so when a photo op occurs, it's more likely to be in your bag and not in your hand. List price: $249
Franklin 12-language (Speaking) Global Translator
The most useful sentence to learn in any language is: "My friend will pick up the tab." Unfortunately, that's not one of the 12,000 pre-programmed phrases on Franklin Electronics' 12-language Speaking Global Translator, although you could certainly piece it together from the 450,000 words stored in its memory. With its dim screen and clunky interface, it may take you some time to get the device to shout, "That man just stole my wallet!" in Russian or Italian, but what are you going to do if you get pick pocketed one of those quaint corners of the world where nobody speaks English? If the tiny keyboard defeats you, Ectaco makes a high-end, $759.95 speech-recognition model with a hand-held scanner for inputing text. List price: $229.95
MacBook Air
This machine is Steve Jobs' idea of the perfect companion for the traveling executive, and it's pretty much what you would expect out of Cupertino: a razor thin masterpiece of industrial design that, in ways large and small, favors elegance over practicality. To minimize unsightly ports it eliminates the Ethernet and Firewire slots. To maintain a profile slim enough to fit into an interoffice envelope, it does without a CD/DVD drive and sports a battery that can't quite make it from SFO to JFK on a single charge (yet can't be replaced by a fresh one). Still, this is the computer we would pack in our briefcase if we had our druthers. The screen is gorgeous. The keyboard is full-size and backlit for when the cabin lights dim. And with a built-in camera and mike, it doubles as a videophone for conducting face-to-face meetings without the jetlag. List price: $1,799 ($799 extra for a solid-state drive)
Kensington ComboSaver Portable Notebook Lock
A notebook computer is stolen every 53 seconds in the U.S. It says so right on the box this lock comes in, citing 2005 FBI statistics. So imagine how fast your laptop — and the precious data it contains — might fly out the door if you left it unattended in a Starbucks in London or Paris? Kensington has been making notebook security systems for years now, and theirs is the brand you see most often in college dorm rooms and other areas where laptops are easily swiped. This lightweight model, with its 3-inch-to-6-feet self-coiling cable, slips easily into a computer bag. But don't leave your latte for long. The cable is no match for a pair of wire cutters. List price: $24.99
If you spend a lot of time in hotel rooms tethered to a 3" blue Ethernet leash or racking up $9.95-a-day wireless charges, this little white box could be the handiest 7.58 ounces in your computer bag. Originally marketed as a device for extending the range of an existing Wi-Fi network or for beaming music from a computer to a home stereo system, Apple's Airport Express also functions as a wireless base station in its own right. Just plug that Ethernet cable into the box and the box into an unoccupied outlet. When you fire up your computer, the transmitter shows up, ready to be configured into your own private Wi-Fi domain. Share it with whoever is in the room with you or, if you don't enter a password, your neighbors down the hall. List price: $299
Canon Powershot SD1100 IS Digital ElphPicking a camera to take on the road isn't easy: Kodak, Konica, Nikon and the rest compete furiously with multiple product lines and trot out new features every few months. But for travel snapshots, we're partial to the Canon series of point-and-shoots — particularly the Powershot SD1100IS, an 8-megapixel ultra-light with image stabilization, face recognition and a vestigial viewfinder for quick snaps. The camera is smaller than a pack of cards and shuts down tighter than the Batmobile — perfect for slipping unobtrusively into a jeans pocket. Yet it's capable of taking sharp, high-pixel density photos even from a bouncy rickshaw. More serious photographers may favor Panasonic's $300 Lumix for its manual controls and wide angle Leica lens (for a fraction of Leica's price). But the Lumix's lens protrudes from its body and is exposed to the elements; so when a photo op occurs, it's more likely to be in your bag and not in your hand. List price: $249
Franklin 12-language (Speaking) Global TranslatorThe most useful sentence to learn in any language is: "My friend will pick up the tab." Unfortunately, that's not one of the 12,000 pre-programmed phrases on Franklin Electronics' 12-language Speaking Global Translator, although you could certainly piece it together from the 450,000 words stored in its memory. With its dim screen and clunky interface, it may take you some time to get the device to shout, "That man just stole my wallet!" in Russian or Italian, but what are you going to do if you get pick pocketed one of those quaint corners of the world where nobody speaks English? If the tiny keyboard defeats you, Ectaco makes a high-end, $759.95 speech-recognition model with a hand-held scanner for inputing text. List price: $229.95
MacBook AirThis machine is Steve Jobs' idea of the perfect companion for the traveling executive, and it's pretty much what you would expect out of Cupertino: a razor thin masterpiece of industrial design that, in ways large and small, favors elegance over practicality. To minimize unsightly ports it eliminates the Ethernet and Firewire slots. To maintain a profile slim enough to fit into an interoffice envelope, it does without a CD/DVD drive and sports a battery that can't quite make it from SFO to JFK on a single charge (yet can't be replaced by a fresh one). Still, this is the computer we would pack in our briefcase if we had our druthers. The screen is gorgeous. The keyboard is full-size and backlit for when the cabin lights dim. And with a built-in camera and mike, it doubles as a videophone for conducting face-to-face meetings without the jetlag. List price: $1,799 ($799 extra for a solid-state drive)
Kensington ComboSaver Portable Notebook LockA notebook computer is stolen every 53 seconds in the U.S. It says so right on the box this lock comes in, citing 2005 FBI statistics. So imagine how fast your laptop — and the precious data it contains — might fly out the door if you left it unattended in a Starbucks in London or Paris? Kensington has been making notebook security systems for years now, and theirs is the brand you see most often in college dorm rooms and other areas where laptops are easily swiped. This lightweight model, with its 3-inch-to-6-feet self-coiling cable, slips easily into a computer bag. But don't leave your latte for long. The cable is no match for a pair of wire cutters. List price: $24.99
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